Foothill Entertainment to Launch New MIPTV Lineup

CANNES, April 5: Santa Barbara-based Foothill
Entertainment arrives at MIPTV with a slew of new kids’ programming, including
the animated 13-episode series Zot the
Dog, originally produced for ITV in the U.K.

Adapted from Ivan Jones’
best-selling books, Zot the Dog is
the story of two friends sharing humorous and zany adventures together.
Foothill Entertainment will also be bringing several new projects in
development, including the CGI series Boy
and the Dinosaur, which will be executive produced by Splash! Productions.
The series tells the story of a boy who makes a wish on a shooting star one
night while playing with his toy dinosaur. When the boy wakes up in the
morning, the dinosaur he dreamed of has followed him back through time and
space to come alive. Also highlighted at the market is the preschool series Iconicles, which is currently in
pre-production. The series was created by phuuz entertainment, and will be
produced with Create Media Ventures in the U.K. It was commissioned by
BBC/CBeebies for 2009.

Additional offerings
include Big Top Island, another
program from Splash! Productions, following the adventures of Big Top Island’s
resident Monkey Troupe, The Gomez Brothers, who run the Big Top School. This
series will be ready for delivery in fall 2008.

Foothill will also be
seeking to close an agreement at the market for its property based on the
arcade game Whac-A-Mole. The property
is conceived of as two separate series, a kid’s comedy adventure series as well
as an online/TV game show for the whole family.

In other news, the company
has closed a raft of deals for the animated movie Kiddo the Super Truck with South
Africa’s SABC, RTP Portugal and RTV Slovenia, while the
live-action dance movie Hip Hop Kidz was sold
to RAISAT for Italy.
France’s
TF1 recently acquired the classic Little
Monsters, as did Channel 4 Finland. Additionally, Foothill has closed
deals for its animated movie Toy
Warrior with Canal J in France
and with DigiTurk for Turkey.
Finally, Microscopic Milton, was
licensed to Disney Spain,
Canal + in Poland
and RTV Slovenia.

Gregory Payne, the
chairman of Foothill Entertainment, stated: “We have so many good projects to
talk to people about at this MIP, it is destined to be one of our busiest
markets yet.”

—By Irene Lew